Cinderella Ending: A memorable achievement at Chess Olympiad

One tremendous personal achievement clearly stood out in my mind. Back in 1978, Maia Chiburdanidze, a 17-year-old chess star from the Republic of Georgia, won the Women's World Championship representing the Soviet Union. She held that title for 13 years.

Today, at the age of 47, quite a few years past her prime, Maia led her Georgian team to capture the team Gold medal in the 2008 Chess Olympiad in Dresden, Germany.

It was a Cinderella finish for the fourth-ranked Georgian Women's Team. In one crucial stretch, this team won three consecutive matches by a combined score of 12-0.

In addition, Maia also captured a Gold medal for best individual performance. She scored six wins and three draws. One of her six wins came against the 14-year-old phenom Grandmaster Yifan Hou from China. Yifan is the youngest female to earn the Grandmaster title. She is currently ranked No. 3 in the world while Maia is ranked 18th.

This victory came in round 10 of 11, which eliminated China from medal contention while it catapulted the Georgian team into contention for the Gold medal.